A Simple Fall
by ChandaK562
Summary: Kingdom Hospital story Has Dr. Stegman finally gotten rid of Hook for good?
1. chapter 1

As Chris moved down the hallway heading for the staff meeting, the first thing that she heard were the soft, urgent whispers of her co-workers.

"How are we going to tell her?" That was Elmer and he definitely sounded upset about something. Chris furrowed her brow trying to figure out what might be bothering the younger doctor. Surely if anything major had happened during the night, Hook would have called her. She hated that they hadn't been able to spend the evening together but if she didn't spend a bit of time at home, trying to catch up on household chores, she suspected the entire place would fall apart soon. Maybe that was why Hook lived in the hospital basement, so he wouldn't have to worry about boring things like cleaning or doing laundry? Chris laughed softly at the thought as she entered the staff room.

Immediately it hit her that something was wrong. Everyone stopped talking the second that she appeared and Elmer was staring at her with a rather frightened expression on his face.

"What's going on?" Chris asked, glancing around the room for Hook.  
He wasn't there though and neither was Stegman, just Louis, Lona and Elmer. "Where is everyone? Did Stegman botch another operation or something?"

"Sort of?" Elmer said, before burying his face in his hands, very sure he had just said the wrong thing.

"Ignore him." Louis said as he shot a look at his son. Okay, they really had a bad feeling that Stegman had botched things seriously this time but they didn't need to alarm Chris too much yet. There was always a chance that things would be just fine. Louis grimaced slightly as he thought that. Chances things would be fine were probably one in a million.

"Chris, I think you need to sit down." Lona said gently. How in the world were they ever going to tell her? Why had she chosen last night to run those tests on Elmer, making sure that Stegman would be the only doctor nearby when.... She bit her lip, trying to get control of herself once more.

"What is going on?" Why was everyone acting so strange? Chris looked at each of them in turn trying to figure out what had happened that seemed to have everyone so upset. "Would someone just tell me what is going on here? Where is everyone? Where's Hook?"

"Chris, Hook had a little accident last night." Louis said gently.

"It was Johnny." Elmer added. "He decided to do his job for a change and waxed the floors all nice and shiny. The bad part was that he waxed them right outside of one of the trauma rooms right before a major case came in."

"Okay." Chris had a feeling that she knew what they were going to tell her next. Hook had obviously come rushing to help and had taken a spill. But how badly could a fall on the ER floor hurt him. "Where is he?" Did he break something? She didn't know why they would be so upset about a broken bone but.... It was a good thing she had cleaned up last night. She could take him home with her and look after him. "Where is he?" she asked again when no one answered her. "Come on, a fall on the floor couldn't do too much damage. What did he do?"

"Well, the fall probably wouldn't have done much more than bruised him pretty good." Louis said with a grimace. "You know the cabinet in Trauma Two, the one where the door's always loose? Well, Johnny was apparently very inspired last night because he decided to try his hand at fixing it. The problem was that he somehow undid the bolts holding it to the wall while he was working and when Hook fell, he hit the cabinet."

Okay. Obviously the cabinet had fallen onto him. Chris's mind rapidly ran back to the trauma room, assessing cabinet size and the damage it could have possibly done. Okay, something more than a simple broken bone but the cabinet wasn't excessively big. "Where is he?" she asked once more.

"The cabinet falling onto him wouldn't have been such a big problem except when it came down, the door fell off completely and hit him in the head, Chris." Lona said gently.

"What?" How heavy were those doors? She didn't think they were very heavy but.... "Where IS he?" She didn't want to know anything else,  
not until she saw Hook, saw for sure that he was okay.

"Chris, you need to stay calm now, okay?" Louis told her as he stood, walking to the young woman's side and putting an arm around her shoulders. "From what I heard from Liz, Hook got knocked out when the door hit him but the damage didn't look too serious, a mild concussion, maybe.  
The problem was that Stegman was the only neurologist available when it happened and he made the call to do surgery."

"Surgery? What idiot let Stegman....." No, no, no! This couldn't be happening! She suddenly had a horrifying feeling what she was about to be told. "He isn't.... Please...." Tears started running down her cheeks as she thought of it. She couldn't lose Hook now! She just couldn't!

"We don't know exactly what went on during the surgery but Hook's up in ICU right now." Louis continued gently. "He's in a coma, Chris, and I'm really sorry but things just don't look good." 


	2. chapter 2

"A coma?" Chris asked as she stared at Louis in shock. "You said Hook had a mild concussion and now he's in a.... Would someone please explain to me how someone goes from a mild concussion to a coma?"

"Chris, we don't know what happened." Louis said gently, sitting beside her and drawing the young doctor close. He could tell she was on the point ob breaking down in sobs, tears glistening in her eyes. "Liz was there when it happened and all we know is what she told us. She got to Hook about five seconds after he got hit with the door and she said that he was out for under a minute, then he started to come around moaning."

"Moaning?" Chris asked. "So he did wake up?"

"Sort of. As much as someone who just got hit in the head by a cabinet door and probably ended up with a giant headache could wake up. He was moaning, wasn't really with it from the pain, but Liz said that from what she could tell there was no major damage. Liz is very experienced,  
Chris. If she says there wasn't serious damage, I believe her."

"Then how did he end up in surgery, in a coma?" Chris demanded angrily as she brushed away tears. "Where were all of you? Why did Stegman end up treating him?"

"I was on my way home from my shift." Louis said with another grimace. Honestly, he didn't know why he even bothered going home sometimes.

"And we were down in the sleep lab. Doing experiments. Lots and lots of experiments." Elmer said with a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.

"We came as soon as we heard the page." Lona continued, "but by then...."

"Things were crazy in the ER last night. They had the trauma Hook was heading for when he fell and then two more got brought in after that.  
Liz checked Hook and saw that he was fine except for the concussion and headache so she tucked him into a quiet exam room to rest until she could get someone called to come check him and arrange for someone to watch him for a bit."

Okay, that made sense and Chris nodded her head slowly. She couldn't see anything really objectionable there. If Hook had a simple concussion, some nice, quiet rest would probably be the best thing for him and she knew that he wouldn't want a big fuss made when there were patients needing care but.... "How does Steg come into this?"

"For some reason, he decided to come wandering through the ER with Brenda. Probably the first time he's even been down there." Elmer said with a frown. Why had Stegman picked that night of all nights to decide to become better acquainted with the hospital?

"Liz told him that Hook needed to rest and for him to just go back upstairs where he belonged but...." Louis shook his head as he thought about it. "He obviously didn't listen, though, and Liz got called away by a patient that was crashing. When she was able to get back to look in on Hook, Steg and Brenda had already taken him upstairs and were operating."

"What do they say was the problem?" Chris shook her head as she thought about it. She did trust Liz and definitely didn't trust Stegman or Brenda, not after the trouble those two had caused. "What could have possibly have been wrong that they couldn't wait five minutes to get more help or...."

"Stegman says there was a subdural hematoma putting pressure on the brain that needed to be evacuated immediately." Louis said, disbelief in Stegman's report apparent in his eyes as he spoke. "Liz says that there's no way that she would have missed something like that but with Steg and Brenda being the only ones who saw this supposed hematoma...."

Chris didn't even want to think about that right now. All of her attention needed to be focused on Hook and helping him to recover, not on trying to get back at Steg and Brenda although she knew full well the things that they were guilty of. "Okay, you say Hook's in a coma. Why?  
What happened?"

"Stegman says that by the time he started the surgery the intracranial pressure had been too high for too long but...." Louis paused before continuing to speak, definitely not wanting to tell Chris this but knowing that she deserved to know the full story, to know what they were dealing with. "You know what happened to Mona Klingerman. It looks like the same thing happened to Hook only on a larger scale. Stegman has all of the reports and he isn't exactly sharing but from the look of things, I'm guessing that he lobotomized him. It just isn't good at all, Chris. I'm so, so sorry." 


	3. chapter 3

Chris closed her eyes for a moment as Louis finished speaking, not quite sure that what he had just told her had sunk in properly. A lobotomy? Hook had been lobotomized?

"Where's Stegman?" she said after a moment. Okay, what he did to Mona was malpractice but this went way beyond that into the criminal arena.  
There was no reason in the world for him to perform a lobotomy on someone for a mild concussion! After a moment when no one responded, Chris looked up, glancing around at the three others who were looking at her with extremely nervous expressions. "Where is he? Don't tell me that Dr. James didn't bother to call the police and"  
She knew she was starting to scream, a tiny little voice in the back of her head that sounded like Hook's telling her to get control of herself, but she just couldn't. Okay, the relationship with Hook had been brand new but Chris had just known that things were going to work out between them, that this time everything would be right, and now.... The tears started to roll down her cheeks as she thought of it, of losing Hook.

"Chris, there was nothing Jesse could do, at least at the moment"  
Louis said gently as he wrapped his arms around the young woman, hugging her close.  
The fact that Stegman was seemingly getting away with what he had done to Hook made him furious as well and he had argued with Jesse for hours about it,  
insisting that some sort of charges had to be brought. Everyone had. Even Elmer, who normally caved totally in the face of any argument with authority, had actually managed to make some demands as well. Louis didn't think he had ever been prouder of his son than he had been at that moment. "Chris, Brenda and Stegman both insist that there was a hematoma and until we can get the records from that surgery, not that I expect that they're going to be accurate.... It's Liz's word against theirs."

"So he's going to get away with it?" Chris glared angrily around the room as she spoke, looking at each of the three in turn. "All of you are going to just sit by and let Stegman get away with...." She couldn't say it, couldn't speak aloud what she was thinking, but she knew deep down that if Louis was right in his assessment of Hook's condition that the man that she loved was for all intents and purposes, dead.

Surprisingly, Elmer was the one who spoke up. "We aren't going to let him get away with it." he said softly. Hook had been blackmailing him over the head thing, of course, but even with that, the young doctor had been totally freaked when he learned what had happened. Hook had always seemed indestructible, even when Steg was trying so hard to bring him down somehow, and to see him in his current condition.... "We just don't know what we can do to stop him." Hook had always been the one who had dealt with stuff like that, keeping Steg well, not under control, but minimizing the damage a bit.

"Liz is more than willing to testify to what she saw." Louis continued.  
The nurse had been outraged when she found out what Stegman had done and it had taken Louis hours the night before to convince her that calling the police in immediately wasn't the right move. "The problem is that if Stegman and Brenda stick together, it's the word of two doctors against one nurse and they're already starting a smear campaign against Liz to discredit her." Louis saw red as he thought of that.  
Liz had been a good friend and for Stegman and Brenda to malign her, to imply that she was too old and incompetent to do her job....

"So he just gets away with it?" Chris said, anger in her voice as she looked around the room once more. Okay, she knew rationally that there was nothing that anyone could really do if the situation was the way they were saying it was but that didn't take away the anger at the fact that she was losing the man she loved, the man that she had hopes she would be spending the rest of her life with, and that his loss would go unpunished.

"I've talked to Dr. James." Louis said quietly. He wished there had been a better way to break this to Chris, something they could have done to soften the blow but really what was there? "Stegman's been blocking running a MRI and up until the last hour or so, Hook really hasn't been in any condition to be moved. Jesse's going to override that, though, and if he stays stable a bit longer, they'll take him down for the scan. Hopefully that will give us some clue exactly what Stegman did to him, maybe give an idea of what we can do to help, if there is anything." Louis didn't say it, of course, but he was thinking deep down that an autopsy was probably going to be needed to find out exactly the extent of the damage at this point, something that was likely going to be called for relatively soon.

"I want to see him." Chris couldn't deal with it right now, couldn't deal with thinking of what to do about Stegman and Brenda although she was burning inside, wanting to do something, anything, to make them pay for hurting Hook, for taking him away from her. She closed her eyes for a moment, laying her head down on the table and starting to sob as she realized what she was doing,  
thinking about Hook like he was already dead. "I want to see him."

"Chris." Lona said, looking over at Louis and Elmer with worry plainly in her eyes. How could they let Chris see Hook in his current condition?  
She would fall apart completely if she had to see him like that. The other doctors had barely been able to stand seeing it themselves. "Chris, Hook wouldn't want you to see him like he is now. He's on life support and his head...." Lona shook her head as she thought of it. Whatever Stegman had done shouldn't count as surgery but as butchery.

"What's...." Chris closed her eyes, not even sure she wanted to know anymore, not wanting to have any small hope she might have crushed.

"They couldn't get the bone back in place last night after the surgery, or at least that's what Stegman says." Louis said with a shake of his head.  
"To say there's a lot of swelling would be putting it mildly. Chris, Lona's right. Hook wouldn't want you to see him like that. I'm just so, so sorry."

Chris didn't speak for a moment. "I don't care." she said finally, so softly that they almost couldn't hear her. "I want to see him.  
Take me to him." 


	4. chapter 4

Louis led Chris down the hallway, Elmer and Lona right behind them.  
He understood Chris's desire to see Hook no matter how severe his injuries were but he definitely wasn't convinced that this was a good idea at all.  
If it had just been trauma from the injury, that would be one thing but with what Stegman had done.... Taking Chris to view what amounted to butchery just seemed needlessly cruel.

"Chris, you really don't need to see this." Lona said gently, her eyes full of worry as she watched her friend. Alternating waves of grief and anger had been running over the young woman's face ever since she got the news and Lona was more than a bit concerned. The sight of Hook's injury had been almost too much for them to take so she couldn't imagine how much worse this would be for Chris.

"I have to see him." Chris shook her head as she spoke. How could they keep trying to keep her from Hook's bedside? She didn't care how bad it was! Hook was the man that she loved and she was going to be there for him when he.... She felt a sob welling up deep in her throat as she realized she had been about to think that she wanted to be there when he died. No, no this couldn't.... He couldn't die! If she lost him....

"Chris, please listen to us." Louis told her as they stopped in front of the door to a hospital room. "All three of us have seen him and the damage to his head.... Chris, it's very bad. Hook would not want you to have to go through seeing him like that. He loved you too much to put you through something like that. Please, just listen to us and don't go in there, okay? Remember him like he was." Louis closed his eyes as he spoke. It felt so odd talking about Hook as if he was already dead when he knew that the man was still breathing in the next room but after what Stegman had done, he also knew that the essential parts of Hook might as well be dead.

"I don't care! I want to see him!" Chris shouted. Why did they keep doing this, trying to keep her away from him? "Now are you going to get out of my way or...."

"Maybe it isn't that bad now." Elmer said as he broke in. Okay, he definitely knew why his father and Lona were trying to keep Chris away.  
Their view of Hook right after the surgery with all of the swelling, his head covered in bloody bandages and tubes and wires everywhere, was more than a little gross. At the same time, though, he kind of understood why Chris wanted to see him. He would have given anything to see his mom and brother one final time while they were still alive. He was surprised that his dad didn't understand that. Of course, his dad had gotten to see his mom when she was still sort of alive so.... "Maybe he looks a lot better now?"

Louis looked doubtful but he could see from the expression on Chris's face that his son's words had given her a tiny bit of hope. How could he take that away from her? He reached out and slowly pushed the door open. "Alright but if...."

"Just let me be alone with him." Chris said as she stepped through the doorway, firmly closing it in the other three doctors' faces. She didn't want to be rude but right now all she wanted was to be alone with Hook.

Chris had to bite her tongue to keep from gasping aloud at the sight of him. The respirator wasn't frightening to her, of course, not after seeing countless patients attached to one. Even the tube running from his head, attached to a pressure monitor was sort of okay. The really alarming thing, though, was the swelling. His face was puffed up, his features almost unrecognizable due to it, his eyes swollen so much that even if he hadn't been in a coma, she doubted that he could open them.  
What was even more alarming, though, were the bandages on his head, the shape beneath appearing more than a bit distorted, not like a normal head shape at all.

"Honey?" Chris forced herself to take a deep breath, to try to calm down, before she spoke. People in comas could sometimes still hear and.... Panic washed over her. Hook was in more than a coma though, his brain had been butchered and.... No, no, no! She couldn't let herself think like that. Think of Peter Rickman. He had been in bad shape and now look at how well he was doing. She couldn't let herself give in to fear now, not when Hook needed her to be strong, to help him somehow.

"Honey?" She reached out, gently taking his hand as she settled into the chair at his bedside. "Hook, it's Chris. I'm right here with you." She shook her head, forcing herself to laugh slightly. "You know, I know you wanted to get the goods on Stegman but you really didn't have to do that this way, you know. It's going to be okay, honey, I promise. I'm going to stay right here with you and take care of you. You're going to be fine. You just have to try to fight this for me. I love you." 


	5. chapter 5

"Chris?" Louis cautiously poked his head in, not wanting to disturb her but all three of them were more than a bit worried about leaving Chris alone considering what had happened. Bad enough that they hadn't been able to help Hook, that they were going to lose him. If something happened to Chris as well....

Chris looked up, face wet with tears as Louis poked his head in.  
All she wanted was to be alone with Hook right now but she knew that the others were just trying to take care of her. She hated to push them away.  
She didn't speak, didn't know what she could say. She turned her gaze from Louis back down to Hook once more, tightening her grip on his hand, as if by that she could somehow hold him there, somehow keep him with her a bit longer.

"Chris, why don't you come with me, go down to one of the lounges or something? There's nothing that you can do here and Hook wouldn't want you to be putting yourself through this." He told her gently. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Hook, to see the full extent of the damage that Stegman had done. He shook his head as he thought of it, anger building. Hook was so young with his whole life ahead of him and his relationship with Chris.... Okay, the two hadn't exactly declared publicly their involvement yet but anyone who could see them together knew how deeply in love they were. For all of that to be taken away.... Louis could barely remember being in love himself, had tried to forget it due to the bad memories it stirred but he did know true love when he saw it and Chris and Hook had had that. "Chris? Please, let us help you now, okay?"

"I can't leave him." Chris said as she shook her head. She knew,  
of course, that there was absolutely no chance that Hook would wake up but a part of her clung deep down to the thought that maybe he could. Maybe they would get a miracle and he would open his eyes and be okay. Maybe.  
Would Stegman really lobotomize Hook, after all? Surely he knew that he would never get away with it.

"Chris, in Hook's condition, he doesn't know you're here." Louis told the young woman gently. He didn't want to completely crush any hopes that she might still be clinging to but he knew they needed to be realistic. "I'm so sorry but with the damage he sustained...."

"You know, Peter Rickman was supposed to have a one in a million chance of recovery and look at him." Chris knew, of course, that Peter wasn't totally recovered but he was so far beyond where he should have been with his injuries.... Why couldn't she have hope that Hook would get a similar miracle? She reached out and gently touched Hook's face, trying to ignore the wires and tubes attached to him. Things just couldn't end like this for them. She had just found Hook and there was no way that she was ready to say goodbye to him.

"Chris...." Louis paused before speaking. He hadn't thought of what had happened with Peter Rickman before but now that Chris had brought it up.... They had no idea how he had managed to recover to the degree he had, though, so after a moment Louis sadly dismissed what he had been thinking. There was no way they could try anything similar if they didn't know what had helped the artist. "Chris, Peter Rickman was as close to a miracle as we can get. Hook, though.... I just don't think that's going to happen here. The damage is worse, to begin with, and.... I'm so sorry." Louis didn't know what else he could say, not without totally devastating Chris. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, not knowing what else to do. He couldn't bring himself to look at Hook.

"I'm not giving up." Chris said quietly. If she had been in this condition, she knew that Hook wouldn't give up on her. How could she do any less for him. "Do whatever you have to to get the records for that surgery." She told Louis firmly. She wiped at her eyes, forcing the tears threatening to fall back. She wasn't going to do this, wasn't going to just give up on Hook. Not without one heck of a fight.

"Chris...." Louis shook his head. "Chris, don't do this to yourself. Hook wouldn't want you to...."

"Hook wouldn't give up on me if I was in this condition. How could I give up on him without trying? So, are you going to get me those records or do I have to go and find them myself?" Chris said, deadly determination in her voice as she spoke.

"I'll get them, but Chris...."

"I know what I'm doing, Louis. I know what I have to do." Chris wasn't angry with him, was glad that he cared but she knew that she needed to do this. "Just please get the records and go and find Mrs, Druse. Ask her to come down here." Sally had been helping them with the situation with Peter and little Mary. Maybe she could help them with this situation as well. There had to be a way to fix this. Chris couldn't loose him. 


	6. chapter 6

Hook's first thought was that he didn't know what in the world that he had done the night before but he had obviously done way too much of it from the way his head was pounding. He tried rolled over with a slight moan, hoping that he still had some aspirin handy and wouldn't have to raid the pharmacy for them before the staff meeting. Steg would get a laugh and a half out of seeing Hook in this condition and he wasn't about to give him the satisfaction.

Suddenly Hook was distracted by a soft sobbing sound. "Chris?" He muttered. That sounded like Chris but why would she be.... What in the world had he done last night? If he had done something that had hurt her in some way, he would never forgive himself. "Chris?" He tried to roll over once more so that he could see her, could comfort her and offer what he was sure was a much needed apology only to find himself suddenly falling.

"What in the...." Hook muttered as he suddenly found himself on the floor looking up at what was obviously not his own bed but a hospital bed. How did.... "What in the world did I do last night?" Something bad,  
it had to be something bad. Chris was sitting there with an expression on her face that he could only describe as heartbreaking. "Chris, honey, it's okay. I'm really sorry for whatever stupid thing I...." As he started to speak, Hook pulled himself to his feet, starting to move in Chris's direction, wanting to just hold her close until he could convince her how sorry he was and how badly he felt for whatever he had done to upset her.  
Suddenly, he caught sight of a figure in the hospital bed and stopped abruptly, his eyes widening with shock as even with the swollen, distorted facial features he recognized himself.

"What in the world?" How could he be down there in that bed and yet.... Hook shook his head, trying to clear it. A dream. This had to be a dream. Had he volunteered to help Lona out or something last night because if he had, it was definitely going to be the last time! "Chris"  
He called for her once more, hoping that she would hear him somehow, would do something to snap him out of this dream. "Chris, honey...." He reached down, pinching his arm hard. Wasn't that what they always tried on television?

"Sally's on her way." Chris said softly as she reached out,  
stroking Hook's cheek. Okay, his face was horribly swollen, puffed to the point where he was barely recognizable but he was still the man that she loved and she would do whatever it took to help him. "She was able to help us reach Peter Rickman. I'm sure she'll figure out how to reach you too.  
I know you're still in there, Sweetie, no matter what Stegman did to you.  
You just have to hang on for me, okay? Hang on until I'm able to find a way to fix this."

"Chris?" Hook reached out, still not believing that this was really happening. He tried to touch her face, to wipe away the tears, only to find that his fingers passed right through. "Chris?"

"You don't know how happy you've made me these last few weeks"  
Chris whispered softly, her hand drifting up to touch her cheek. Although she knew it was impossible, she could have sworn that Hook had touched her.  
She reached down, taking his hand in hers and holding it tightly, stroking Hook's fingers. Strong, skillful fingers. Surgeon's hands. Would he be able to operate again after this? She wouldn't let herself think about him not waking up, about him remaining in a coma forever but.... No, she shook her head firmly, forcing any thoughts of a less than complete recovery away. Hook was going to be fine and she wasn't going to let herself believe anything else. He needed her to stay focused on getting him through this.

"I told you a little about what happened with my last relationship,  
with how weird it was but I didn't tell you how he ended up making me feel,  
like I was worthless, like no one would ever love me, like I didn't deserve to be loved. I honestly thought I was never going to try again with another man after that. I didn't want to be hurt anymore and I was sure that's what would happen. After all, that's what I thought I deserved so..." Chris brushed away a tear, raising Hook's hand now, pressing it against her cheek in the place where she had imagined that he had touched her. "Then you came along and.... I was so scared. Did you realize that?  
I was so scared to try again but somehow you got through before I even knew what you were doing. You always were a sneaky one, weren't you?" She laughed slightly at that. "You made me so, so happy that I can't even describe it. You loved me and you made me feel like I deserved to be loved. I...." She bit her lip, trying to hold back tears. "I love you,  
Hook. You're the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. I can't lose you now. Please, you have to try to come back to me. Please!"

"Chris?" The rest of her life? Was Chris saying that she wanted them to get married or.... Hook leaned down over the now sobbing Chris,  
wrapping his arms around her although he knew she couldn't feel it.  
"Chris, I love you and whatever it takes, I'm going to come back. You can count on it. You just be strong for me right now, okay?" He gently pressed a kiss against her forehead before standing and heading for the door. He still wasn't sure of how he got into this state to start with and he had no clue how he was going to get out of it. He did have an idea for where he should start looking for answers, though. Peter Rickman's room,  
the center of much of the hospital's current strangeness. "I'll be back,  
Chris. Just be strong, okay? I love you." 


	7. chapter 7

"Elmer?" Lona had been heading down toward Hook's room to check on Chris knowing that she didn't need to be alone at a time like this when she suddenly heard what sounded like soft sobbing coming from a nearby supply closet. She slowly pushed the door open a bit and peaked in.

"Lona?" Elmer wiped at his eyes when he spotted her, not wanting her to see him like this, feeling totally humiliated that she had caught him but.... "Lona, just could you please go away right now, okay? I...."

"Elmer, what's the matter?" Lona hesitated for a moment, wondering if Elmer was just pulling something to get her attention but she shook her head a moment later, dismissing that notion. He seemed really upset about something. She slipped into the closet quickly and closed the door behind her. "Elmer?" It was pitch black in there but the darkness wasn't really alarming, in fact was a bit cozy. She reached out, fumbling for a second before resting her hand on his arm. "Elmer, sweetie, let me help you,  
okay?"

"It's just...." Elmer wasn't sure how do say this, knowing that Lona seeing him like this was just going to make her thing he was an even bigger loser than she already suspected. And if he let her know his problems.... She definitely wouldn't want to have anything to do with him then. He didn't even want to have anything to do with himself at times.  
"It's nothing really."

"Elmer, it didn't sound like nothing." Lona said gently. "Please,  
let me help you, okay?" True, Elmer could drive her nuts at times but she could tell now from the sad sound of his voice that he was genuinely heartbroken over something.

"It's just...." Did Lona really mean it when she said she wanted to help him? After a moment, Elmer decided to risk it. "It's the thing with Hook. Isn't there something that we can do to help him?" he asked with a pleading tone in his voice, clearly hoping that Lona would have a different response than the one his father had given.

"Elmer...." What could she say? Elmer clearly was wanting to hear that Hook had a chance but from what she had seen, Lona knew the odds were practically zero. How could she break that to him gently, though? "Elmer,  
you know if there's anything that we can do to help Hook we're going to do it but with what Stegman did.... Miracles happen, honey, but it just doesn't look good. I'm so sorry." She suddenly reached out, impulsively drawing Elmer into an embrace, holding him tightly as he started to softly cry once more.

"Hook wasn't so bad, you know." Elmer muttered. he felt terrible,  
to be crying in Lona's arms like this, to be showing her how big a loser he was but.... "I kind of thought that...." He tightened his grasp on Lona,  
a bit afraid she would decide he was up to something and push him away but at the same time needing something to hold onto, something to steady himself with. It seemed like everything he touched kept slipping away from him.

"Here. Let's sit down, okay?" Lona said gently, easing Elmer down to the floor and settling in beside him.

"Well, isn't this cozy." Hook muttered as he stepped through the door and spotted the two there, Elmer resting his head on Lona's shoulder,  
holding her tightly. He knew he needed to get up to Peter's room, to try to find a way to fix this but hearing Elmer and Lona in a supply closet together had definitely intrigued him.

"I kind of thought of Hook as...." Elmer didn't really know how to say this properly. Lona was his dad's friend, after all, and he didn't want this to get back to him but.... "Well, he was nice to me and everything, nicer than Edgar was sometimes and...."

"Your brother was a little temperamental, wasn't he?" Lona said gently as she thought back, recalling the other Traff. Funny, she supposed that once a person was dead, you tended to remember only the good things about them but now that she thought about Edgar, he had been more than a bit difficult, erratic, worse than Elmer.

"Edgar...." Elmer shook his head as he thought of his brother. He didn't want to say anything bad about him. He was his brother after all,  
and Elmer still missed him every time he thought about it but.... "He could be really nice, you know. Like the big brothers you see on tv. It's just that he could get to missing our mom so much sometimes. It wasn't really bad for me because I never really knew her, not like he did but"  
He stopped speaking for a moment as he thought of his mother and of the fact that she apparently didn't want to even bother to know him. No,  
definitely not something he wanted to think on.

Hook watched as Elmer struggled to figure out how to tell Lona what he was wanting to say. To be honest, it had slipped his mind completely that Elmer had had an older brother but now that he was reminded of it....

"Edgar wasn't really bad, though. I mean, he was just a kid. It's not like he could know that he shouldn't do the stuff he did. And I guess getting locked in the morgue was kind of cool when you think about it"  
Elmer said with a shake of his head. "And he would do stuff with me and I had to be really annoying because he was older and all." He felt his sobs increasing along with his embarrassment that he was acting this way in front of Lona.

"Elmer, it's alright." Lona whispered even as she was thinking.  
Locked in the morgue? Elmer's brother locked him in the morgue? "Lots of brothers and sisters have problems. That doesn't mean they don't love each other."

"I did love him and I miss him and it's not that I'm saying Hook's better than him or anything but...." Elmer paused before continuing.  
"He's just nice all the time, though, even with the stupid stuff and.  
And I know you didn't like the morgue thing but he helped me with that and that's the kind of thing brothers are supposed to do and Edgar would never do that even though he wasn't really bad but...." Elmer knew he was totally babbling now but he just couldn't stop it just hurt so much.

"Elmer, sweetie, it's okay." Lona whispered, hugging him tight to her. "Honey, I'm so sorry. It's okay."

"I just.... I don't want him to die, Lona. I don't want to lose another brother. I just.... Isn't there something we can do to fix this?"

"Yeah, we're going to fix this, Elmer, whatever it his." Hook said with a shake of his head. Honestly, he hadn't really thought very much about Elmer as anything but the goofy, flirty resident but hearing him say what he had.... "Listen, you know, my brother wasn't the greatest either.  
If you might be interested, I think I can make an opening for a new little brother, okay? And the thing with the head and Mona Klingerman, you don't have to do it if you don't want to." Hook turned and started through the door. He had to find someone to first figure out what was going on and then figure out how in the world to fix this. There were too many people dependent on him for him not to do whatever it took to repair what had happened. As he passed through the door, he turned towards Elmer and spoke once more. "Listen, why don't you just stay here with Lona for a little while okay? I'm sure she's going to make you feel much, much better." 


End file.
